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Stock Smackdown: Cramer vs. CAPS

A showdown over who knows stocks better.

There's no denying that Mad Money host Jim Cramer is entertaining, popular, and passionate. On many occasions, he's even right. So he's smart, funny, and the closest thing to a stock market rock star -- but is he smarter than you?

Cramming for CramerThe Fool's free investing community, Motley Fool CAPS, aggregates the opinions of more than 135,000 members to assign ratings for each stock's likelihood of outperforming or underperforming the market.

Below, we look at some top stocks that Cramer picked and panned during last week's "lightning rounds," and we compare them with how the CAPS community sees their future.

Stock

"Lightning Round" Show Date

Cramer's Rating

CAPS Rating (Out of 5)

AT&T(NYSE:T)

Monday

Bullish

****

Boeing(NYSE:BA)

Monday

Bullish

***

Dendreon(NASDAQ:DNDN)

Tuesday

Bullish

**

Research In Motion(NASDAQ:RIMM)

Tuesday

Bearish

**

First Solar(NASDAQ:FSLR)

Wednesday

Bearish

**

ExxonMobil

Wednesday

Bearish

****

Delta Air Lines

Thursday

Bearish

*

Akamai

Thursday

Bearish

*****

Regions Financial(NYSE:RF)

Friday

Bearish

**

EMC(NYSE:EMC)

Friday

Bullish

*****

Cramer says …It's not enough that Regions Financial has been nearly run into the ground, had to seek out $3.5 billion in TARP money last fall, and then had to raise another $2.5 billion after it failed the U.S. government's "stress test." Just after it secured the government's cash in November, its CEO also had the audacity to fly off with his family to the tony Greenbrier resort for a little R&R, at a cost to the bank of more than $17,000, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Oh, come on, man ... you're in a sea of winners, and you come to me with that two-bit, nonsense name! Sell, sell, sell. ... You should be ashamed of yourself! ... Why aren't you in Huntington Bancshares? ... Huntington Bancshares is a lot better!

CAPS says …Such lapses in judgment notwithstanding, the CAPS community is divided over the caliber of management's quality. For example, bankerman13 finds Regions to be of a higher quality than other similarly situated companies:

regional bank with potential for great income based on franchise. Loan writeoffs are done with. Management is superior to other regional southeast franchises. Stock will be at [a price-to-sales ratio of] 15 in one year and then nice dividend will come back. [TARP] money will be paid back. You can count on it.

Yet even with nearly three-quarters of CAPS members thinking Regions Financial will outperform the market, Spencersb says Regions will continued to be dogged by the fiasco caused by its peddling of high-yield mutual funds. It's alleged that Regions' Morgan Keegan unit (RMK) marketed the funds as safe, low-risk investments when they were, in fact, loaded with risky, toxic assets: "Until management changes and the full impact of the RMK Funds debacle is known, this regional money supermarket will at best bump along near current levels."

Regions has subsequently lost numerous arbitration cases. Hundreds of arbitrations have yet to take place, and the cases that have already taken place have cost it millions.

Financial stocks aren't held in high esteem among CAPS members these days: The 425 stocks with the CAPS Commercial Banks tag garner a lowly two-star rating as a whole. Over the past month, they've lost on average about 4%, though that's still better than the 8.5% decline that Regions has suffered.

Your sayWhile CAPS members may stand with Jim Cramer or on opposite sides of the field, the investor-intelligence community is more than what some All-Stars think, even if they are TV personalities. But what do you think? Is Cramer right, or is he off his rocker? No need to hedge your thoughts on CAPS, so why not head off right now to CAPS, where you can sound off on whether Regions Financial is a stock you can still take to the bank?

Motley Fool CAPS is a great place to start your own research on these stocks. Read a company's financial reports, scrutinize key data and charts, and examine the comments your fellow investors have made -- all from a stock's CAPS page. Best of all, CAPS is free.

Author

Rich has been a Fool since 1998 and writing for the site since 2004. After 20 years of patrolling the mean streets of suburbia, he hung up his badge and gun to take up a pen full time.

Having made the streets safe for Truth, Justice and Krispy Kreme donuts, he now patrols the markets looking for companies he can lock up as long-term holdings in a portfolio. So follow me on Facebook and Twitter for the most important industry news in retail and consumer products and other great stories.